I have a great deal of time for the Warmwell site. Mary Critchley who runs it, tries hard to present all views and has the ear of many in authority or who have influence.  The recent postings on DEFRA’s latest attempts at self-explanation and justification are typical of the good work she does. Here is DEFRA’s account of its Departmental Strategic Objective:

2.9 A Respected Department

Effective delivery of our Departmental Strategic Objective (DSO) to champion sustainable development means leading by example, and being a respected Department. Our reputation is built up over time by doing our core business well: by delivering the desired policy outcomes within our DSOs. Therefore, all of the good work done in the other DSOs (including how their delivery is framed within the principles of sustainable development) should contribute to turning our “respect” dials positive over time. Progress against this DSO is reported quarterly to Defra’s Management Board.

Someone has suggested that this could be set as an A level question within quotation marks with the word “Discuss” after it!!!  What on earth does it mean and, what on earth has it got to do with Farming and the Environment? I imagine their “respect” dials are set at zero and it will take a huge amount of effort on their part to shift them!

From the same Warmwell post comes this further attempt by DEFRA to justify their existence:

“Defra’s role is to promote the inclusion of rural interests within mainstream government policy-making and delivery in a way that is both itself sustainable in policy terms and leads to sustainable outcomes, and to maintain an overview of a basket of national indicators in order to determine whether there are any systemic problems resulting from geography/rurality.”

I am a farmer who also happens to have a degree in English. This is so appallingly badly written that I would dearly love to take a red pen to it and send  the writers of this rubbish back to my old English tutor whose constant refrains,  in connection with technical writing were

” Never write two words when one will do,” and,  “Simplify! Simplify!”

It fills me with despair to read this  rubbish which needs interpreting for lesser mortals like us. It is filled with self important pomposity and unnecessary complication. It is no wonder farmers don’t trust DEFRA!!

I had hand surgery this week which has meant I have been one-handed in my work round the farm and will continue to be so for at least another 10 days. After that it will be a gradual exposure to lifting, twisting, dragging and all the other daily tasks my hand together with the rest of my body has to do. My surgeon told me it must be two months before I lift heavy weights. I explained I was a farmer. “Ah!!!” he said, with the resignation typical of someone used to dealing with Devon’s rural community. “Well, be sensible then! If you were in an office job I would sign you off work for 6 weeks with this. No doubt you will be back in the barns tomorrow looking after your stock so there’s not much point saying anything else is there?”I meekly promised to be sensible  -  not wanting to repeat what I have just been through if it can be avoided!!

There is a profound attitude difference to illness and disability among farmers and rural workers compared with town counterparts.  We genuinely cannot afford to be ill. When we are, then we must work through it. This is typified by my cattle farmer neighbour who last year had appalling flu at about this time. He had a high temperature, a very nasty cough and at times could barely stand upright, but for three weeks he forced himself to feed 50 young calves and 200 head of growing beef animals in his sheds every day, twice a day. If he had been able to rest he would have been over it in a week but the whole thing dragged on because he had to work through it. There is no one to help. The days of large forces of farm workers have gone and all neighbours are stretched to do their own jobs. We do what we can of course but that is limited.

So, the idea of having 6 weeks off, twidding my thumb (singular – the other one is too painful just yet!!) is an unimaginable state of affairs. My dear husband has taken some time off to help with morning and evening feeds but that will cease after this weekend and I must manage. The morning and evening routine takes about 75 minutes and I imagine it will be doubled more or less because of the extra work I will have to do with only one hand.  Two trips for two buckets , no using the wheelbarrow (have you ever tried to steer a wheelbarrow with one hand?) and carrying one armful of hay or silage at a time to feed 200 hundred animals. No driving of our farm vehicle either of course so I must walk out to the fields with forage for each batch.

It is incredibly hard to look after the animals in this state.The vet came on Wednesday to see two lambs I am concerned about. He needed to have them held while he took blood which was proving pretty tricky with one hand until DH turned up in the nick of time and saved the day! They are really strong  lambs with no intention of cooperating! They both need daily antibiotic injections – isn’t it always the way when you are incapacitated? So far I have made my stitches bleed twice since last Tuesday. Injecting the sheep was one occasion. I’m sure there will be more!

My situation is extreme of course. Most people who live and work in towns do have more opportunity to convalesce after surgery although anyone with young children  is in a very similar situation.  I do wonder if they have it TOO easy however. There is so much self-pity and giving in to minor complaints it seems to me among many people. A few days on a livestock farm might make them realise just how lucky they are. Of course, livestock farming is a choice for us (although not for my neighbours for example who know nothing else and have no other skills), so you could say, “You chose this life so put up and shut up!” which is I believe, precisely my point!! We do!! What I am suggesting is that this philosophy could be extended a little to the people in towns. More stoicism and less self indulgence from some would be welcome. It’s remarkable what you can achieve even with only one hand when you put your mind to it.

Today was AI Day for the cashmere goats. We took 4 to Horsepond Vets in South Molton for laparoscopic insemination. The same place which did such a great job with my Bowmont sheep last month.

Here they are in the holding area, just before their anaesthetic.

This was an entirely different ball game. Laparoscopic AI in sheep is well established in the UK with plenty of experience and a clearly understood drug protocol which seems to work well and reliably in most sheep. With goats this is not the case. Drug doses are less certain  and timings are more variable.  Almost anything you do with goats is a hit and miss affair because no one does very much research on them.Anaesthesia in particular can be a little tricky.

So it was with heart in mouth that I watched Mike clip the fleece from the goats’ necks and inject into a vein to knock them out.  No photos this time as I was too busy looking out for them  and holding their heads.  A quick lift up into the cradle , a shave and a wash and we were off.

Each goat was only lightly anaesthetised but given plenty of pain killer as well so they didn’t feel a thing. The laparoscope went in and Mike declared all 4 to be well in season which was a great relief. You can follow a programme for nearly three weeks and still find it hasn’t had the desired effect if you get the drug dosages wrong. Insemination was very quick indeed and the goat was soon off the cradle and back in the pen to recover while the next was being done.

The semen we used was 6 years old, frozen in Scotland. Here is a picture of the male. He was one of the very best bucks ever produced by The Macaulay cashmere project.

He was naturally hornless (“polled”) so we must always mate him to a horned female to make sure we do get horns. (Polled goats can occasionally have genetic abnormalities.)  It is a really strange sight to look down a microscope and see semen from this buck, defrosted and teeming with life even though he has been dead for 6 years.

The goats took a variable amount of time to recover but they are as individual as people in that respect. All were up and about within 40mins of their turn although still a little wobbly.  We got them back home and settled in to a freshly strawed pen with hay and water. I thought they would be thirsty but in fact none touched their water but went straight for the hay.  Since they had been without water since the night before that did surprise me. However goats are drought tolerant creatures so maybe that has something to do with it.

Now it is a waiting game. Mike will scan them for me in about 8 weeks. We hope for between 50-75% success but it’s totally in the lap of the gods. We and the vets have done as much as we can, The rest is up to the goats!!!

A little later this month the decision on whether 4 giant wind turbines are to be erected just above here will be made. The construction is very likely to destroy the precious wildlife sites I have here by causing polluted run off into the Iron Mill Stream – home to Atlantic Salmon and otters.

The Environment Agency said, when I queried this that some pollution was inevitable but if I ring their pollution control hotline they would try to deal with it.  Excuse me – but, by the time I notice it the damage is done!!!!

Anyway – there is still a 0.0001% chance the decision will be no but the inspector at the Planning Enquiry has never refused a wind turbine development yet. He is well known for it.  In the meantime, I would urge you all to read the last couple of postings on warmwell

This site takes a balanced view which is what I am trying to do.  The science behind climate change (how I hate that phrase which is both overused and misused) is contradictory to say the least and the methods the government is employing to counter “it” are very likely to be totally ineffective. What we SHOULD be doing is pouring all that bottomless pit of money into REDUCING energy expenditure, more effecient use of what we DO use and of course, promoting SMALL scale, local generation projects.

This is not nimbyism just pure commonsense. I would be first in the queue for a SMALL turbine here. But we cannot afford to spend billions chasing impossible targets set arbitrarily by an idealistic government for political reasons. We need instead to force ourselves to  address the forthcoming energy deficit problems head on with a PRACTICAL response. For, being realistic, that is what this is truthfully about. We will run out of oil sooner or later (and even that is an uncertain date!) and we need to be ahead of the game when it does.

Here we have limitless supplies of water for small scale hydrogeneration, unreliable wind for small turbines and a HUGE supply of cow muck for biogas generation. But can I get funding for developing any of these? Not without a huge financial commitment from us and purchasing technology which is changing all the time. The government have totally ignored the needs of the small scale development and are only now begining to wake up to the need for investment in this area.

I despair at the arrogance of our politicians, most of whom have not studied science beyond GCSE level apparently.  Their political needs have been put far above commonsense and the genuine needs of the people they are supposed to serve. In the meantime, billions are wasted on greedy private developers of schemes such as these giant turbines which will make no meaningful contribution to energy supplies or to “climate change”. In the meantime, the wildlife which lives here will suffer. What price green energy then?

We had a visitor last weekend – a Norwegian vet student. She is in her final year at university and is writing a dissertation on the goat  industry in Europe. She had been a guest at the Goat Veterinary Society meeting and was then given a tour of several typical commercial goat units in the south of England including myself.Janne spent most of the day with us looking at the cashmeres and talking in depth about what we do here and how it constrasts with practice in Norway.

This was definitely a two way process since I learned a great deal.Did you know for example, that in Norway, no one keeps goats as pets?  They have 44000 goats, we have about 90000 but the numbers are actually very similar because here in the UK over half those 90000 are kept by pet goat owners. (These are DEFRA figures – not mine).

I feel this does the UK goat sector no favours in the eyes of the Farming hierarchy and DEFRA of course because our pet keepers are seen as typical of all goat keepers, ie not commercial and with a totally different set of priorities. The Norwegian government is currently funding a large health improvement programme for its dairy goats (all Norwegian goats are dairy) – something which would be unthinkable here. And yet we have large commercial herds of up to 6000 producing great products in demand both here and abroad!

Janne was also surprised by several management aspects of our sheep and goat production. Tail docking in sheep for example. She was astonished that this was legal in the UK. It is not in Norway (nor in Holland as I have mentioned before).  “Why do you do this to your sheep? It must hurt. You do not need to with modern chemicals for fly strike.” I of course said that I left my sheep with tails last year to see what happened. I can’t speak for others.

The other thing which she found incomprehensible was chasing wild animals about on horseback for sport and then killing them.  We had seen the hunt about on the way in to the farm. “You are supposed to be a nation of animal lovers. It seems you have some very strange ideas!” she said. I asked what happens in Norway. “Yes we hunt.” she replied, “But only with guns. The animal is shot dead and knows nothing. Why does your country chase animals on horseback?”  I do not hunt myself so could offer her no answers.

Janne went off to her next visit later that day leaving me with some serious questions to answer. To her we were a nation full of hypocrisy in our attitudes to animals.  Norway was not perfect – (Janne said the public there are far less interested in welfare and animal friendly production methods for example, particularly for pigs) but they were consistant. The UK appears to be a mass of contradictions at least to foreign eyes. Food for thought for all of us!!!

I have had annother update from Dianne Summers – the brave lady from Cornwall who along with Richard vickery is attempting to get the Camelid community to face up to the TB issue. Dianne has very bravely put a link to a video of one of her beloved Alpacas in his last days up for all to see.

Raphael had a very characteristic cough – one which any Alpaca keeper should be on the look out for as it could mean there is a serious problem. Any of you out there who keep Alpacas, I urge you to look at this and listen carefully. If any of your animals sound like this then get a vet to check them.

TB cough in Alpacas

On Thursday I gave a talk at the GVS autumn meeting on “Artificial Insemination in the Cashmere Goat – Our Experience”. I won’t bore you all with the technical details of what I said but it was a brief gallop through who we are, why we did it, how we did it and of course, the results.

There were lots of pretty pictures to help keep people awake including these of some of my bucks:

It was well received I’m very pleased to say and generated lots of good questions afterwards which must mean a) people were listening and b) they found it interesting enough to want to know more!!

I was very heartened by this as it is extremely difficult to stand up in front of a specialist audience of 70 people, most of whom were practicing vets with far more experience than I and expect them to listen to a farmer’s experience. It’s a real credit to the GVS that they do in fact do this at EVERY meeting. There is always at least one farmer session where the people like me, at the sharp end of dealing with the animals and their problems on a daily basis get to address the experts.

It’s also a marvellous opportunity for us to hear all the latest ideas and to talk to some of the key experts in goats.  Dr Rose Grogono Thomas from Bristol University Vet School, who is an authority in foot problems in sheep and goats, was there and my vet and I had a really good discussion about some particular problems. Others were doing the same with different experts but always the conversations were two way. We would ask something and the expert would say: “Have you tried X???? How did you get on? Did you find it worked? Did you do what it said on the tin or did you try it in a different way???” etc. We were all learning from each other.

One subject which DID NOT come up was TB in goats. This has been discussed in detail at the last two meetings because there were active issues relating to the outbreak in 2007 in Wales.  Currently there are no goat herds/flocks under restriction I believe in the UK so for us, the issue is under control.

This was entirely due to the Movement Licensing system goats have to operate under AND the full cooperation of goat keepers and farmers who immediately provided names and addresses of possible contacts on and off their farms. If Camelids had the same system maybe they would not find themselves in the sorry state they are now in. Another herd of over 100 Alpacas is under restriction in Devon as I write.  They have got to put their house in order and get this under control for their own and everyone else’s sake!!!

All in all a good day but I was mightily relieved when it was over!!

I was at my class at Coldharbour Mill today and the subject of sett came up.  We were discussing the formula

S = TxR

IxR

where S is sett, T is number of wraps round a ruler in one inch, R is the number of ends in one threading repeat and I is the number of times the weft intersects with the warp.

Correct me if I’m wrong but why can’t we just cancel out the Rs in this equation? We discussed this round the table during our theory session and worked through a few examples with and without the R using twills and 8 shaft satin. We could get no difference.  Someone out there with more knowledge and more mathematical brains – is there any reason for retaining the R in the calculation??

I have just started weaving my cushion cover using my own wool. I’m quite pleased so far.  The design should close up nicely a) off the loom and b) when it’s washed gently. The particular problem I have is the selvedges which will always draw in with this kind of pattern so I have decided to use a temple. We don’t have one small enough so I have just had a look round on the web. Sure enough here is a “do it yourself” version which is infinitely adapatable to width although it will have to be moved even more often than the tradiiotnal wooden type I imagine. Still, its a simple neat solution. I particularly like the idea of the paper clips. The hooks on all the temples I have seen so far look incredibly vicious – guaranteed to cause snags in anything fine I imagine.

So far the drawing in is not an issue but as weaving progresses, I can see I will have undulations at the edges!! Best to act now before things get beyond repair!!

As most of you will know, the farming industry is fighting a losing battle against Bovine TB. Thousands of cattle (and now other species as well) are infected each year and the risk to human health is growing.

The government have decided a cull of badgers, which are now universally regarded as the prime reservoir of the disease, is not allowable. All they will do is promote a long term and incredibly costly vaccination programme for the said badgers.

The vaccination programme is being trialled in a few areas of the country next year. Tiverton is one of them. We have a TB hotspot here although all but one of my cattle farmer neighbours are clear. Three local Alpacas herds are now heavily infected and since there are others locally which are refusing to test, the risks are huge. Goats are very vulnerable to TB if they come into contact with it although the evidence is they don’t act as primary hosts. To the best of my knowledge, there are currently no goat herds in Devon or Cornwall under TB restriction but that could change overnight.

As a responsible farmer, living in the trial area I have therefore decided to sign up to the Badger Vaccine Deployment Project. Only a few of those who sign up will be chosen in this area for the first year so I don’t know if we will be selected yet. If we are, it means allowing access for trapping and vaccination on about 6 nights a year.

I know some neighbours think I’m mad. My view is that if this is all the government are offering, and it’s free, (ultimately, after the end of the trial, farmers will be expected to pay to have this done themselves), it’s a no-brainer. If it works – great. If it doesn’t and cattle and other species still get TB in this area then its still worth doing if only to prove the government wrong.

As far as I know our badgers here are healthy. If they were not then the cattle that  live here would have TB by now. If we can get them vaccinated before they get it then it seems logical to try to do so. Once in the local badger  population the vaccination issue  gets a little less clear.

We wait to see if we are one of the chosen band.  Watch this space!

Firstly, a big Thank You to all those on the Tea Shop Knitters Fibre Retreat who wrote so appreciatively after your visit here last Saturday. I loved seeing you all and as you probably guessed, like nothing better than to show off my animals!! Terry – you can certainly do it again next year!

For those who were here that day, and for anyone else I would like to announce.. (Drum Roll and Trumpet fanfare….) my 4 ply cashmere has finally arrived from the Mill!!! It’s gorgeous, so if anyone is interested, just email or contact me through the Blog. Currently its all Natural which is as below here

I shall be dyeing later this week and over the weekend and from then on I expect!!